Outdated since Advent of Valkyrie patch (12/18/2013). No, I do not plan to update this any longer. This game has disappointed me so much and this patch is just as disappointing as every other patch that ever came.

Intro: So, I've decided to write a guide here just to help out anyone here who didn't migrate from the SEA server or are just new to the game in general. (Warning: I'm bad at writing guides, lol) I'm only writing this guide from my experiences as a Sorcerer so far. If you're curious, he's currently Lv 38. Not enough to cover endgame yet, but it should steer people in the right direction.

Again, I must warn you that I have not experienced endgame content, so if you came here looking for that, I can't really help you.

1. So, what is a Sorcerer?

A Sorcerer is your typical mage, in the sense that they are high damage dealers, but they also possess support skills. If you have played RO, this class is somewhat similar to Sages. Here, they play a DPS/Support Hybrid role, unless you attempt to build your Sorcerer otherwise.

2. Why be a Sorcerer?

If dealing high damage while being able to heal decently enough aren't enough reasons to be one, I don't know what is.

3. I'm considering being a Sorcerer. What are the disadvantages?

Well, like any magician classes in any MMO, you deal tons of damage while taking tons of damage yourself. Plus, while you're able to heal, you can't heal as well as a Priest. However, don't let this discourage you. Sorcerers can heal parties by themselves in any normal mode dungeons. I've done it myself, and so have many others.

4. What's the same about Sorcerers in RO2 compared to RO? Any differences?

Sorcerers are still your support mage. They did steal a few Wizard skills though. Plus, the skills they did keep are modified to fit the combat mechanics here. For example, Deluge in RO provided bonuses to Water element related stuff, but increases Max HP and heals over time in RO2.

5. Stat Builds

First, let's go in-depth as to what each stat does.

STR - Increases Physical attack power and Parry Rate. However, this does absolutely nothing for Sorcerers due to how this game is programmed, no matter how much points you put in it.

AGI - Increases Critical and Dodge Rate. Many classes put in points to this, including Sorcerers. Some even go as far as to get more AGI than INT.

WIS - Increases Max SP. No one ever puts points into this. I don't either, and so should you.

VIT - Increases Max HP. Unlike WIS, people actually put points into this. In RO, you would put points into this to ensure that you can survive. This is the same for RO2.

When you open your character window by pressing "C", there are other stats that you can't directly put points into. I'll go over those too.

Parry Rate - The chance that the damage you take is reduced. Upon success, it indicates itself by playing a sound effect similar to having a shield being hit, and also a shield-like animation on your character.

Critical Rate - The chance that your attacks deal more damage.

Attack Speed - How many normal attacks you do per second. So, 2 attack speed means 1 hit per 2 seconds. Not important to Sorcerers.

Dodge Rate - The chance that your opponent's attack misses you.

Haste Rate - Reduces casting time by the percentage listed. Example: Fire Bolt's cast time is 1 second. Having 30% haste reduces that 1 second by 30 percent or 0.30 seconds. (Please correct me if this is wrong)

51/27/3 - More AGI than INT, which means insane Critical Rate. Some people argue that INT is easier to gain through equipment and cards, which is why this build may be a good plan. I personally think Magicians in general already have a high Critical Rate, but more never hurts.

40/40/8 - Sacrifice 1 INT and AGI for VIT. It's a decent tradeoff.

6. Skill Builds

Of course, in order to actually do anything, you need skills! I'll go through each skill in a certain order. Players like to categorize a set of each skills as a "tree". For Magicians, it would be like "Fire Tree", "Water Tree", etc.

Water Tree:

Cold Bolt: Inflicts damage with a 26-38% of magic power with a 100% chance to slow movement speed by 40% for 6 seconds. You start with this skill at Lv1, and you may choose to leave it at Lv1 or increase it or even max it at 5. The choice is up to you, and it mostly depends if Wind Emblem/Jupitel Thunder Mastery procs enough for you. Unlike in RO, this skill and all bolt skills do not do multiple hits.

Frost Diver: Inflicts Frozen state on a single target for 2/4/6 seconds. Like RO, frozen enemies take more lightning damage, but the difference is that frozen state is not cancelled upon taking damage. I highly recommend maxing this skill at Lv3 as it helps tremendously with leveling. Enemies hit with this skill also get a Strong Will buff for a certain amount of time, where Frost Diver and Ankle Snare's duration is reduced.

Cast Time: 1.5 seconds
Cooldown: 5 seconds
SP Cost: 3/4/5

Water Emblem: For 30 minutes, reduces damage taken by 2/4/6/8/10% and heals 1/2/3/4/5% HP and SP every 10 seconds. Only one Seal-type buff can be active at a time. Most players leave this at Lv1. I personally think it's a nice compliment to healing yourself since HP and SP doesn't naturally recover in battle, but whatever.

Cast Time: Instant
Cooldown: 3 seconds
SP Cost: 3/4/5/6/7

Beyond here in the Water Tree are Sorcerer skills, so you need to be Lv 25.

Summon Aqua: Summons a Water Spirit to assist you in battle. Attacks the enemy every 2 seconds with magic power of 26/29/32/35/38%. I haven't seen a build that even has this skill at Lv 2, even though it's pretty similar to the Ranger's Falcon.

Cast Time: Instant
Cooldown: 120 seconds/2 minutes
SP Cost: 3/4/5/6/7

Healing Wave: Heals a single target for 12/13/14/16/17% of magic power. You could max this if you want to lean towards better healing.

Cast Time: 0.5 seconds
Cooldown: None
SP Cost: 2/2/3/3/5

Soul Cleanse: Removes debuffs on 1/2/3/4/5 ally/allies within a target area. There's no need to max this, as most debuffs are already gone by the time you use this.

Cast Time: 1 second
Cooldown: 10 seconds
SP Cost: None

Meditation: A passive that increases critical healing effect by 340/380/420/460/500% exceeding 95% Hit Rate. In simpler words, it increases critical healing effects assuming your hit rate is over 95%, but this bonus is minor. Most players do not max this, but some do.

Deluge: Creates water in an area that increases your party's Max HP by 4/8/12/16/20% and recovers HP by 26/29/32/35/39% of magic power every 2 seconds. Lasts 10 seconds. Ugly cooldown, and ugly SP cost, but good to use when a difficult boss is about to throw a mean AoE at you.

Cast Time: Instant
Cooldown: 2 minutes
SP Cost: 30//45/60/75/90

The Fire Tree will not be discussed here because no Sorcerer needs that tree. Do not ever level up anything there. Ever.

Wind Tree:

Every offensive skill here has doubled damage when used after Frost Diver or a Wizard's Frost Nova, or when Wind Emblem's 20 second buff activates.

Lightning Bolt: Inflicts lightning damage with magic power of 15/17/18/20/22%. This skill is weak by itself, but has no casting time. Leave this at Lv 1, as Jupitel Thunder and Varetyr Spear will replace this in the long run.

Cast Time: Instant
Cooldown: None
SP Cost: 3/4/5/6/7

Thunderstorm: Inflicts damage with magic power of 14/17/19% to a maximum of 3 enemies in a selected area. Just about everyone has this at Lv 1.

Cast Time: Instant
Cooldown: 3 seconds
SP Cost: 5/6/7

Wind Emblem: For 30 minutes, increases Haste Rate by 4/8/12/16/20%. When Cold Bolt hits, a buff that doubles lightning damage for the next two lightning skills appears for 20 seconds at a 6/12/18/24/30% chance. This obviously helps a lot in general. Max this. The 20 second buff does not stack with the Freezing bonus though.

Cast Time: Instant:
Cooldown: 3 seconds
SP Cost: 3/4/5/6/7

The skills beyond here in the Wind Tree are Sorcerer skills.

Jupitel Thunder: Inflicts lightning damage with magic power of 47/56/64%. Like I said, this replaces Lightning Bolt for damage. My Sorcerer in the SEA server can currently deal up to 1.7k with critical and Freezing/Wind Emblem bonus. <- That one-hit k.o's any normal field monsters like Horongs in Payon. Powerful in RO. Just as powerful in RO2.

Cast Time: 2 seconds
Cooldown: 3 seconds
SP Cost: 6/9/12

Jupitel Thunder Mastery: A passive skill that compliments Jupitel Thunder. When Cold Bolt hits, a 7/13/15% chance that in 10 seconds, the next Jupitel Thunder casts instantly. Keep this at Lv2 at least. Maxing it doesn't make much difference.

Foresight: For 20 seconds, instantly cast the next 3 skills. Most players do not max this because of the ugly cooldown. Somewhat better than the RO version, lol.

Lord of Vermillion: Literally summons storm clouds to deal lightning damage of 24/28/32% magic power. Effect increases with 3 or more enemies in range but decreases with 6 or more enemies. An AoE lightning bolt, basically...and you don't even need to select an area to use it, so it's spammable. A good amount of players argue that maxing this is not worth the damage increase, and also because this class isn't built for AoE. Leave it at Lv 1. It beats Lightning Bolt either way.

Cast Time: Instant
Cooldown: None
SP Cost: 20/23/26

Varetyr Spear: Every class has an ultimate damage skill. This is yours. Throw a lighting spear towards an enemy to inflict damage of 54/61/67/74/80% magic power. Stuns for 3 seconds. This is every Sorcerer's best friend. Max it.

Cast Time: Instant
Cooldown: 30 seconds
SP Cost: 13/16/19/22/25

Upon job change, Sorcerers gain a new Earth Tree. Which consists purely of support skills.

Earth Emblem: For 30 minutes, increases healing effects by 20/40/60/80/100%. When a heal crits, a heal over time is applied for 6 seconds, which recovers HP equal to 20/23/25/28/30% of magic power. Maxing this doubles your otherwise useless healing.

Rejuvenation: Instantly heals an ally for 18/21/23/25/27% of magic power. Despite that this skill has no cast time, there's still an animation delay that doesn't allow you to move, and a slightly long cooldown. I wouldn't max this.

Land of Recovery: Makes the ground heal allies within a 10m radius for 10 seconds. Recovers HP equal to 7/8/9/10/11% of magic power every 2 seconds. Some argue that maxing this is not worth the increase. I'd max it anyway.

Cast Time: 1 second
Cooldown: 10 seconds
SP Cost: 9/10/11/12/13

Because Sorcerers can be both support and DPS, there is much room for different kinds of builds. Full Supports, DPS, Hybrids...you name it. (but please go Hybrid...it's the best build for any Sorcerer. Plus, you'll always have enough points to be one anyway) Here's my personal preferences for each of these builds. Adjust the stats and skills how you like them to be. They don't have to be 41 AGI and 41 INT.

Another build you can try is sacrificing something to level up Cold Bolt. The reason behind this is that it's your most-spammed skill. Although, the true DPS comes from Jupitel Thunder and Varetyr Spear.

7. I've planned out my build. How do I fight as a Sorcerer?

Starting out as a Magician, use Fire Bolt for now until you max Frost Diver. Otherwise, a typical Sorcerer fights somewhat like this...

For Magicians: 1. Frost Diver -> 2. Lightning Bolt as much as you can (usually 4 or 5 times) -> 3. spam Cold bolt until Wind Emblem's buff activates -> 4. Lightning Bolt x2 -> rinse and repeat from start. If the monster still has the Strong Will buff, keep doing steps 3 and 4 until it's gone.

For Sorcerers without Varetyr Spear: 1. Frost Diver -> 2. Jupitel Thunder -> 3. spam Cold bolt until Wind Emblem buff activates -> 4. Jupitel Thunder -> Cold Bolt or something else as a filler for JT's cooldown -> Jupitel Thunder -> rinse and repeat from start. It all depends if the monster has the Strong Will buff or not. Frost Diver and Jupitel Thunder when the buff is gone.

To clear any confusion, all you're doing is taking every single opportunity to double your lightning damage via Frost Diver or Wind Emblem. When the monster has Strong Will, (that would mean you or someone else immobilized it recently) Cold Bolt till Wind Emblem procs, then use your best lightning skill.

Dungeons are a different story. This is where you fight mobs but heal when necessary. If you have Lord of Vermillion, a Wizard with Frost Nova, and a tank, the tank could gather a nice mob, the Wizard uses Frost Nova, and you could wipe the floor clean with LoV. (Warning: I don't know if this is efficient, but it sure sounds like it does) At bosses, I'd recommend maintaining Land of Recovery on those who are far away from the boss (that would be you, the Priests, the Wizards, and the Rangers) so the Priest can concentrate on the tank and any melee DPS. Deluge when the boss is about to throw a mean AoE or potential one-hit K.O. With your amazingly high damage, you could generate a lot of threat as well. Be careful about that.

Also, when leveling, do every single quest from NPCs (including the Daily Quests at least once, just to ensure you're not underleveled) to level. DO NOT SKIP ANY OF THEM OR YOU WILL FALL BEHIND. This is also true for Khara quests that give you EXP. Never, ever skip a quest that gives you EXP, and try to solo them unless it involves a dungeon. You could fall behind in levels too if you do non-dungeon quests with even just 1 other person. Monster Busters are optional. You can juggle those with whatever main quest you're doing for a fair amount of money. I cannot stress how much you should NEVER be 1 level below any monster. Your Hit Rate will be reduced when fighting a monster just 1 level higher than you, and it is very noticeable. I have done this mistake, and it almost made me cry D:

8. Wait!!! What about Professions?!

Right...you may be wondering what profession to choose. They're all good in their own way. I'll discuss on what the benefits are for each one.

Artisan - EASY to level. My Priest is an Artisan in RO2 SEA and she already made her Artisan level to Lv 29 by the time she got to Lv 22. They make armors for all classes except Swordsman. The armors made are better than average (at least better than most green equipment from quests). Materials are gathered from most monster corpses, so in aggro situations, you may want to lure the monster away from it's spawn area. Artisans also make runes. These runes, when inserted into an available rune hole, gives a minor stat boost depending on what rune it is. At endgame, they can obtain recipes from certain monsters to make purple equipment, which I assume have some demand on the market. Runes and those purple equipments will be your money maker.

Chef - It's honestly the hardest to level up for me. My Assassin Chef in RO2 SEA is Lv 26 and his Chef level is 25. I'd always recommend having your profession level over your combat level. Chefs make all kinds of dishes (most of which are somewhat disturbing in name and description...) that heal you out of combat, or give buffs. Ingredients are gathered from certain monster corpses. (Example: Edible Jellopy only drop from Poring-type monsters) A potential money maker here is selling the best dishes you can possibly cook. (Looking around the forums and in-game, one of them seems to be Screw Fin -_-tails.)

Alchemist - Easy to level in a sense that you do not need to gather materials from a monster corpse, but from the yellow wildflowers found throughout the field. Alchemists make healing and buff potions that are way better than the ones found from shops or monsters. At endgame, the best potions you can make will be in very high demand, so there is potential to make great money, but the recipes are dropped from certain monsters.

Blacksmith - Same as Alchemist in terms of gathering materials and leveling. Materials come from mining rocks found throughout the field. (Generally where the flowers are too) They make Swordsman armor and weapons for all classes. Like Artisans, they can also make purple equipment at endgame, plus an item called "rune hole punchers". If you've ever found an equipment that has a "blind rune hole", you'll need one of these in order to insert your rune in. The punchers and the purple equipment are your potential money makers. I personally might not recommend going for this profession as a Sorcerer or any other class except Swordsman, really...unless you always want a good weapon, or always have those rune hole punchers ready to use. The craftable Purple weapons seem to be quite high in demand, recently.

9. The trial you must pass to even become a Sorcerer...

When you reach Lv 25, find an NPC named "The Great Stia". She is located in the Prontera Castle west of King Reinhard. Then complete the following...

1. Talk to The Great Stia again, saying that you are interested.2. In 3 minutes, find her again in the Graham Circus tent.3. She will summon a Wind Spirit. Lv 25 with 1120 HP. Not a hard fight at all. Kill it.4. In 3 minutes again, find her near the entrance to Prontera Castle.5. The Great Stia will summon an army of monsters. You must kill the Red Elementals without hitting, or even touching the blue ones. It's possible to fulfill this requirement without moving at all.6. You are done! Go back to the Prontera Castle and talk to her again. Make sure you press the "Class Change" button to change to a Sorcerer.

When you job change, your class icon will change from this...

To this...

10. HELP! I'VE MADE A MISTAKE!!!

Three words: Do. Not. Panic. If your character is holding a Starter Package, the Lv 35 one will give you a stat and skill reset. Also, if you class change, both your stats and skills will reset. Much less room for errors, thank god.

I think I got mostly everything covered. Comments, questions, suggestions, and criticism are all welcomed. I'll most likely edit this guide every once in a while, so check back for any new information.

A question for your hybrid build: would you recommend adding one of the extra points into Cold Bolt and the other into JT mastery for 13% chance proc? Even if we leave Cold Bolt at Lv1, is it going to be strong enough damage for randoms and raids? If not, what's a recommended level for Cold Bolt? Is sacrificing a one point off Deluge into Cold Bolt worth the compensation?

Well, you only use Cold Bolt to proc JT Mastery/Seal of Wind's buff. It's still alright in terms of damage (my Sorc is a little messed up in the SEA server and has Lv 5...naturally happens with my very first character, LOL) but I personally think it's not worth the points, and definitely not worth the sacrifice from Deluge, so leave it at Lv 1.

Excellent guide! I'm going to make this my second character once the official game launches. From what I've seen of the class, it's a really fun support class and it's much easier to level than the FS priest.

Well, you only use Cold Bolt to proc JT Mastery/Seal of Wind's buff. It's still alright in terms of damage (my Sorc is a little messed up in the SEA server and has Lv 5...naturally happens with my very first character, LOL) but I personally think it's not worth the points, and definitely not worth the sacrifice from Deluge, so leave it at Lv 1.

Even with JT Mastery at Lv2 and Wind Arms at Lv5, I still have to spam Cold Bolt at least several times on average to get either of them to proc. Decent portion of my dps action (aside from keeping up LoV) will come from Cold Bolt. If the Jupiter Thunder damage severely outweights all the spam from a lower level (Lv1~3) Cold Bolt then I believe that'll be okay.

Excellent guide! I'm going to make this my second character once the official game launches. From what I've seen of the class, it's a really fun support class and it's much easier to level than the FS priest.

Even with JT Mastery at Lv2 and Wind Arms at Lv5, I still have to spam Cold Bolt at least several times on average to get either of them to proc. Decent portion of my dps action (aside from keeping up LoV) will come from Cold Bolt. If the Jupiter Thunder damage severely outweights all the spam from a lower level (Lv1~3) Cold Bolt then I believe that'll be okay.

Even with the 2x JT coming from the Wind Arms proc from Cold Bolt, if you feel like you cannot proc JT instant cast or 2x damage that frequently, it's more ideal to pick up a maxed Cold Bolt. You may argue that it's not worth it due to the low damage, but remember, it is still one of your most spammed skills. If VS is on cooldown, I'm sure you won't be spamming anything else but Cold Bolt to try and get the 2x/JT proc up. And once JT is on that 3 second cooldown, CB spam is the only thing.

this is personally my ideal hybrid build. maxing cold bolt.. is like a must. i still hit high regardless. and always will be spamming that skill constantly. now the reason i didnt max JT mastery.. honestly.. it procs.. fairly alot... during my cold bolts.. so its not like. its so low. that it would not proc at all and im not kidding here. it procs alot. so i never really ever had a problem with it but this is the build i ran with during closed beta so i mean it worked for me great especially when i actually maxed cold bolt. from when i just made the char to get that verry big extra boost in damage early on so i basically had no troubles getting to 25+ at all.

That's a fairly decent build there. I heard that the Sorcerer nerf will stay here, so with Seal of Earth at Lv 3, you won't heal as much as compared to the amount Pre-Nerf. That's where you would need Lv 5.

Whether to level up Cold Bolt past 1 is really a matter of how much Seal of Wind/JT Mastery procs for you. My Lv 5 Seal of Wind seems to hate procing for me in the SEA server, and Lv 1 JT Mastery rarely procs for me as well, if ever. That's why I personally had Cold Bolt maxed. It's really up the player.

oh i understand i wont be maxing earth seal regardless. because its not my job to be fully healing ppl. when the priest is slacking. off im not about to have that lol. ive played priest aswell. and if u cant heal... im sorry u needa change the class to something easier for u thats just how i see it. sure my job is to help as backup heals and so on. but.. thats not my MAIN job. and plus i run with my friends so i never had a problem healing at all. I actually run with people who know wat thier doing. I never run with randoms. thats just asking for me to go on a rage rampage if they dont know wat thier doing.

And with this build i crit alot. so the damage from cold bolt is pretty much significantly higher u can make up for the loss int in gears tbh because higher end gears have less agi than int bonus so thats basically what i did their. So so far ive had no problems yet. always grabbing partys so i guess meh it all depends on u ive even seen some ppl have max seal of water instead of wind and earth and using that. AND they make it actually WORK go figure. lol

Hello, newbie mage going to go sorcerer here. Thanks for the helpful guide. I have read a few guides saying not to put any points into wisdom, and I would like to know why? I have put 2-3 stat points in wisdom, but wondering if that will be detrimental later on?

Hello, newbie mage going to go sorcerer here. Thanks for the helpful guide. I have read a few guides saying not to put any points into wisdom, and I would like to know why? I have put 2-3 stat points in wisdom, but wondering if that will be detrimental later on?

wisdom adds to ur sp. usually u only find sp running out issue to be a problem as u're lvling at lower lvls. as u reach higher lvls or max u'll find it not too often that ur sp runs out quickly like it would at lvl 40-

also blue pots are cheap to spam. It's better to save those precious stat points on something more useful like int/agi/vit than on wis :3

I've learned a lot from your guide but I still have a few questions left.

I like the idea of playing a hybrid sorcerer, since being able to dish out decent damage while supporting the healer sounds like a very versatile and fun role. I checked out both hybrid builds and cannot decide which one to use, though. Are Healing Wave and Deluge really that important or are the earth skills such as Land of Recovery and Earth Arms enough to support decently? I don't want to gimp my damage too much :3.

I wasn't initially planning on playing RO2, but I have to say this caught my eye... I've always loved magic classes, something which Renewal kind of ruined, and over here they seem to still be pretty decent.

In general, what do you think would be preferable for party-play? I imagine support just as in RO1, unless Sorcerers can actually turn out comparable damage? I'm just curious before I start one, I'm not entirely sure how I'll feel about the game as a whole and I heard resets only come from paying real life cash.

Got one more question, would a 41/41/0 sorc have higher heals than a 51/27/3 sorc? But do crits also affect healing and stack with meditation?

In my theory, only if they crit enough (yes, heals do crit). Meditation just takes whatever your hit rate is IF it's over 95% and turns it into a bonus for those crit heals, but it's very minor.

Hey!

I've learned a lot from your guide but I still have a few questions left.

I like the idea of playing a hybrid sorcerer, since being able to dish out decent damage while supporting the healer sounds like a very versatile and fun role. I checked out both hybrid builds and cannot decide which one to use, though. Are Healing Wave and Deluge really that important or are the earth skills such as Land of Recovery and Earth Arms enough to support decently? I don't want to gimp my damage too much :3.

Thx in advance

I suppose you could only get up to Healing Wave if you wanted, but LoR and Seal of Earth is indeed enough for a Sorcerer in my opinion. Deluge is for when those bosses throw really ugly AoEs at you.

I wasn't initially planning on playing RO2, but I have to say this caught my eye... I've always loved magic classes, something which Renewal kind of ruined, and over here they seem to still be pretty decent.

In general, what do you think would be preferable for party-play? I imagine support just as in RO1, unless Sorcerers can actually turn out comparable damage? I'm just curious before I start one, I'm not entirely sure how I'll feel about the game as a whole and I heard resets only come from paying real life cash.

Kinda agree with what Renewal did to magic classes there, lol.

I would suggest going hybrid, because Sorcerers can deal ungodly burst damage, and the support is still good enough to help yourself with leveling or other fellow ranged classes at dungeon bosses. I can potentially one-shot or take half of a normal field monster's HP (which is ~1k HP at Lv 25-29), depending on my level of Jupitel Thunder/Varetyr Spear.

I really like the guide, I've been following a path very similar to yours. I did change some skills from what you picked though and I changed what the original builder put for stats so if you don't mind, would you be interested in telling me what you think of this build?

I really like the guide, I've been following a path very similar to yours. I did change some skills from what you picked though and I changed what the original builder put for stats so if you don't mind, would you be interested in telling me what you think of this build?